| Abstract from DBPedia | A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or, in the case of dry cooling towers, rely solely on air to cool the working fluid to near the dry-bulb air temperature using radiators. Common applications include cooling the circulating water used in oil refineries, petrochemical and other chemical plants, thermal power stations, nuclear power stations and HVAC systems for cooling buildings. The classification is based on the type of air induction into the tower: the main types of cooling towers are natural draft and induced draft cooling towers. Cooling towers vary in size from small roof-top units to very large hyperboloid structures (as in the adjacent image) that can be up to 200 metres (660 ft) tall and 100 metres (330 ft) in diameter, or rectangular structures that can be over 40 metres (130 ft) tall and 80 metres (260 ft) long. Hyperboloid cooling towers are often associated with nuclear power plants, although they are also used in some coal-fired plants and to some extent in some large chemical and other industrial plants. Although these large towers are very prominent, the vast majority of cooling towers are much smaller, including many units installed on or near buildings to discharge heat from air conditioning. Cooling towers are also often thought to emit smoke or harmful fumes by the general public, when in reality the emissions from those towers do not contribute to carbon footprint, and consist solely of water vapor.冷却塔（れいきゃくとう、クーリングタワー、cooling tower、）とは、水などの熱媒体を大気と直接または間接的に接触させて冷却する熱交換器の一種で特に屋外に設置するものをさす。また、加熱に使用するものを加熱塔と呼ぶ。 水の一部を蒸発させてその潜熱により冷却する原理であり、その伝熱量は、水の蒸発潜熱によるものが約80%、温度差（顕熱）によるものが約20%と言われる。原理的には外気温よりも低温（湿球温度近くまで）の水を得ることができ、空冷熱交換器よりも高い伝熱効率を得られることが特長である。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cooling_tower) |
